Envases investing $16.6 million at Fremont site, adding 65 new jobs
FREMONT — Sandusky County's economic development efforts got another boost Tuesday with Envases Ohio's announcement it intends to invest over $16 million in its local facility and create 65 new jobs.
Beth Hannam, the county's economic development director, told the News-Messenger Envases Ohio, LLC, will create 65 new positions, retain 109 employees and invest approximately $16.6 million into its 4600 Oak Harbor Road facility in Fremont.
Envases is a packaging-solutions company that serves the painting and coatings, chemical, lubricants, adhesives, solvents, and fuels industrial packaging industries.
Hannam said the 65 new jobs will be created over a three-year period and include general labor, maintenance and technical positions.
She said the average hourly wages for the new positions will range from $16-$30 per hour.
The company's announcement adds to the county's recent job creation success over the past few years, Hannam said.
"It's been a pretty good year. We've had a lot of investment," she said.
Amy Reinmeyer, Envases' human resources director, said in a news release the company is in a period of significant growth in its industry.
"We are training and developing our team to support long term sustainable growth with visions to double our plant size and output in the coming years,” Reinmeyer said in the release. “Our growth has created the need for more employees, but we must be able to train and retain in order to realize our potential and opportunity. We have evaluated our current onboarding and training program and have added more detail and duration to support the needs of new team members.”
This project includes the purchase of the company's Fremont building — which the company had been leasing, according to Hannam — along with machinery, internal upgrades, and training.
JobsOhio, in collaboration with the Regional Growth Partnership, helped support the expansion with a $200,000 workforce training grant for the new production lines.
“Demand has created an opportunity for Envases to add new production lines to support the U.S. market," Reinmeyer said in the company news release. "There is currently only one U.S. manufacturer of this product.
“Many customers are importing this style can from Europe incurring very long lead times and shipping costs. A second supplier in the US will reduce stress on the supply chain for many of our current and future customers.”
The project will increase Envases staff by at least 40% to support the new production lines and continual growth with their existing infrastructure.
Envases has already seen significant growth since it opened its doors in 2014, growing from a small one-shift operation to running three shifts with more than 130 employees.
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This article originally appeared on Fremont News-Messenger: Envases adding 65 new jobs, investing $16.6 million at Fremont site
